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Saturday, March 30, 2013

One of the nicest way to deliver super nutrients to our bodies is to "hide" them in a delicious dessert. A little trick here and there and you can make your loved ones eat "health food" even if the do not normally want to.

Some foods are considered to be genuine superfoods. They are incredibly rich in nutrients and beneficial phytochemicals that help prevent disease and restore vitality and health. If food is to be your medicine, choose wisely and pick the foods that really have the healing potential.

As always, the recipe below can be altered to suit your personal preferences. By simply adding more liquid you will make a delicious smoothie. You can also choose different superfoods and vary the proportions to your own liking. The recipe below serves two.

And remember. Use organic ingredients whenever you can.

Ingredients:

2 ripe avocados

2 ripe bananas

2 1/2 cups chilled oat milk

2-3 Tbsp raw cacao powder

1 Tbsp açai powder

1 Tbsp lucuma powder

1 Tbsp sprouted chia powder

1 Tbsp raw honey

1 tsp raw cacao nibs for garnish (optional)

Method:

Wash and cut avocados lengthwise into halves. Scoop the flesh and place in a blender.

Peel bananas and cut into manageable chunks. Place in a blender.

Add all the powdered superfoods, honey and oat milk. Blend until you receive a thick, smooth mass. Adjust the amount of liquid if necessary.

Portion the dessert into chilled glass dessert dishes. Sprinkle with raw cocoa nibs and enjoy in good company.

Sunday, March 24, 2013

If someone told me yesterday that it was Spring I would have laughed. Still dressed up in my very warm winter jacket and boots I made it to the Whole Foods market to buy some fresh ingredients for my Sunday salad. The first thing I put into my shopping basket were edible flowers from Spring Thyme Herb Farm. And maybe there was some magic in the very act of buying edible flowers because the day is so much nicer today although it is just as cold as it was yesterday. But at least the sun is shining...

This simple, but tasty spring salad is designed to help you detox your liver. The bitter greens and peppery nasturtiums help produce bile and enhance digestion. Betaine from beets helps you reduce homocysteine levels in the body and protect your liver from liver disease.

As always, this recipe was created to inspire your own creativity. You can use any lettuce you like or are able to buy at this time of the year. If you are a vegan you will have to skip the yoghurt dressing and make an orange vinaigrette instead. Simply whisk orange juice with virgin olive oil and a dash of balsamic vinegar. Add a little raw honey if you like.

Ingredients:

baby arugula

watercress

lamb's lettuce

edible flowers

1 small beet

freshly squeezed juice of 1/2 orange

virgin olive oil

1/2 tsp raw honey

raw milk yoghurt

organic sea salt

freshly grind black pepper

Rainbow spring salad with orange dressing

Method:

Wash and clean the greens and place in a salad bowl.

Peel the beet and shred it. Mix with greens.

Wash and clean the flowers. Pat dry.

Carefully mix the flowers with greens and shredded beet.

In a small bowl whisk a dressing using all the orange juice, olive oil, honey, yoghurt, salt and pepper. Adjust proportions to your personal preference. Add more yoghurt if you want your dressing to be very creamy. I used 1/3 yoghurt, 1/3 orange juice and 1/3 olive oil.

Pour the dressing over your salad and enjoy it in good company.

This colorful salad will wake up your senses. Spring comes a bit late this year, but we can celebrate it anyway by simply adding ingredients that bring smiles to our faces.

Wishing you a fabulous day every day - in radiant health - passionately raw - Dominique

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

If you are new to juicing you might be mesmerized by all the green juice talk in juice bars, in health magazines and all over the world wide web. So what is this green juice hype all about?

Green juices are probably the best food-based medicine we can give our bodies. They are particularly beneficial for all these people who:

have problems with their digestion

whose bodies are highly acidic

those who suffer from toxic overload

for those who need to lose weight

Juices are easily absorbed as the juicing process breaks down the cell walls of fruits and vegetable making them easier to digest. This means that the nutrients are getting directly into your system.

One very well known benefit of using green herbs and vegetable in juicing is the fact that they are rich in chlorophyll. Scientists discovered that haemoglobin in human blood and chlorophyll in green plants are almost identical. Just like our haemoglobin chlorophyll contains carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen. The only chemical difference in the organic construction of the chlorophyll in plants and haemoglobin in blood is that the former contains magnesium while the latter contains iron.

A research in Germany demonstrated that chlorophyll helped reduce high blood pressure, eliminated anemia, made weak men strong, cured digestive troubles, and seemed to be a potion of youth.

Once in the digestive system, chlorophyll immediately enriches the blood. The red blood cells increase considerably in number while their haemoglobin content rises. The blood circulation improves and more nutrients and oxygen are transported to tissues and organs. At the same time more toxins are neutralized and removed. The blood is enriched and reinforced with new life. No wonder, then, that those who consume considerable amounts of chlorophyll-rich foods are not only reporting recovery from chronic diseases and ailments, but also more energy, stamina and radiance that they have not experienced for a long time, if ever at all.

Best fruit and vegetable combination for a nutritious alkalizing green juice:

cucumber, celery, cilantro

lime, celery, cucumber, cilantro

cucumber, celery, fennel

aloe vera leaves, green apples, lemon balm

green apple, celery

green apple, pear, cucumber

celery, bell pepper, cucumber

pear, mint, cucumber

cucumber, fennel, celery, green chili pepper, cilantro

cucumber, parsley, bell pepper

apple, kiwi, cucumber

honey dew, celery

bell pepper, green chili pepper, cucumber

spinach, green apple, cucumber

kale, celery, cucumber

dill, apple, cucumber

orange, kale, cucumber

These are only few suggestions. You can start from here. Experiment with green herbs and veggies; add limes or lemons. Add ginger. The taste will change when you change the proportions of your ingredients, but the alkalizing and detoxifying action will remain unchanged.

I prefer to make pure vegetable juices, but some people love to add a little sweetness of a fruit. I rather add herbs. And I always add a pinch of Celtic salt and few drops of virgin olive oil to activate the bile flow.

End of summer is a perfect time to start a detox program. Start slowly and gradually increase the amount of green, alkalizing foods.

Sunday, March 10, 2013

The winter is almost over in most parts of the Northern hemisphere. As days get longer and the nature is beginning to wake up, so comes our need to recharge and re-energize our bodies. The simplest way to do it is to perform a juice detox.

Our bodies are equipped with detoxification organs and if you are healthy, detox happens naturally on a daily basis. But unless you are living in a pristine environment, your body probably needs some help.

There are many detox protocols, but one of the easiest way of detoxification is the juicing method where meals are replaced with freshly made juices.

You can combine any fruit and vegetable to create a wonderfully tasting juice, but some mixtures are more effective detoxifiers than others.

The all time favorite is probably the ginger beet juice. Both ingredients are well known and well researched for their incredible health benefits.

~ Ginger Beet Juice ~

Ingredients:

2-3 large organic beets

3-4 inch-thick chunk of ginger

Method:

Wash beets thoroughly and chop them into manageable chunks without removing the peel.

Wash the ginger. You may leave the peel on if you wish.

Place the ingredients in a juicer and process.

Enjoy right away!

You can drink this juice every day, but your detox routine will be so more interesting if you decided to drink some other juice every second day.

~ Carrot Chili Juice ~

Ingredients:

3-4 large organic carrots

1 medium large hot chili pepper

1 small garlic clove

Method:

Wash the carrots. Leave the peel on.

Wash the chili pepper. You may want to remove the seeds, but this is not necessary.

Peel the garlic clove.

Place all ingredients in the juicer and process.

Enjoy in good company!

This is a good start as both juices will help you activate the liver function and improve digestion.

worth reading

Today, more than ninety five percent of all chronic disease is caused by food choice, toxic food ingredients, nutritional deficiencies and lack of physical exercise. - Mike Adams

Vitamin B12 for vegans!

Your health is what you make of it. Everything you do and think either adds to the vitality, energy and spirit you possess or takes away from it. - Ann Wigmore

Be Like A Pineapple T-Shirt

One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote our attention to eating. - Luciano Pavarotti

Why chose raw food?

The raw food diet, also known as the living food diet, is a diet primarily based on pure, unprocessed and uncooked plant foods, such as fresh fruit and vegetables, sprouts, seeds, nuts, grains, beans, nuts, dried fruit, and seaweed. While many people on raw food are vegans, some do not necessarily exclude other raw foods such as raw eggs, raw honey, raw milk, meat and fish.

The raw food diet consists of 75 - 100 percent raw foods and may include some foods that are cooked or baked. For a better absorption of nutrients raw diet should also include raw fermented foods.

It is important to understand that heating food above 118°F or 47°C destroys most of the enzymes that normally assist in the digestion of food and absorption of nutrients. On the energy level, cooking is believed to diminish the nutritional value and the "life force" of food thus making cooked and processed foods energetically less valuable to the body.

Proponents of the raw food diet believe it has numerous health benefits, including:

For many people raw food means more than a way to obtain nutrition. It is a joyful lifestyle they embrace consciously, knowing that it will lead them to a better mental and physical health and a much happier life.

Radish Detox Smoothie

Health, excellent or ill, is passed to our children not just through our genes but primarily through our recipes. - Joanne L. Mumola Williams

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